Pollution In China To Increase Vinyl Glove Cost

Will pollution regulations in China affect Vinyl glove cost? Could customers, focused only on glove price, be forced to move to Nitrile gloves as a result?

In addition to the many adverse health-related problems associated with Vinyl disposable gloves, their environmental impact is also of concern. To keep Vinyl disposable glove manufacturing costs down, factories use coal-fired boilers – with an obvious environmental cost and increase in pollution levels.

In Northern China, a major production area of Vinyl, the Chinese government announced a 45-day production ban imposed on Vinyl glove factories due to the record levels of air pollution. It is expected that the factories will not be back to 100% production until March 2017.

The temporary closing of these factories has caused a shortage of Vinyl glove supply in the market. With a total of 170 production lines shut down in Shijiazhuang, this is estimated to be equivalent to around 1.7 million cases of disposable gloves!

HOW WILL YOU BE AFFECTED?

All suppliers of Vinyl gloves are expected to be affected, with the impact of reduced supply affecting price in the short term. With pollution regulations expected to escalate in China. The future of Vinyl disposable gloves affordability is unknown.

However, either by continuing limiting production or by changing to more sustainable and expensive manufacturing, the end result will potentially drive long-term prices of Vinyl gloves even closer to higher quality Nitrile gloves.

So why choose a Nitrile glove instead? Eagle Protect stocks a full range of Nitrile disposable glove alternatives.